Best Directing Team

‘Boyhood’ is Critics’ Choice for Best Picture, but ‘Birdman’ is top film with 7 wins

As expected “Boyhood” was the big winner at the Critics’ Choice Awards, taking Best Picture, Best Director (Richard Linklater), Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette). It also won Best Young Actor/Actress for Ellar Coltrane, who played the lead role for 12 years before the film was finished; a few years more and he might have aged out of that category altogether.

The Critics’ Choice Awards have 19 categories that mirror those of the Oscars (they do not give out awards for sound or for shorts). Decided upon by the 250 members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, they have predicted 12 of the past 19 Best Picture Oscar winners as well as 13 Best Actors, 10 Best Actresses, 10 Supporting Actors, and 12 Supporting Actresses.

“Birdman” lost the top prize, but it actually won the most awards overall — seven to be exact, including Best Actor (Michael Keaton), Best Original Screenplay, Best Ensemble, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing. It also won Best Score, defying the Oscars, which deemed it ineligible in that race. Additionally, Keaton took home the genre award for Best Comedy Actor.

“Gone Girl” got some revenge at Critics’ Choice after being snubbed from all but one category at the Oscars. Screenwriter Gillian Flynn, who adapted her own novel, won Best Adapted Screenplay.

In another rebuttal of the academy, the critics chose “The Lego Movie” as Best Animated Feature, “Force Majeure” as Best Foreign Film, and “Life Itself” as Best Documentary. None of those films were nominated in their respective categories at the Oscars.

“Interstellar” was shut out of the top categories at both Critics’ Choice and the Oscars, but it won Best Sci-Fi/Horror Film.